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1897

1897

Roman Vishniac (Wischniak) is born to a prosperous Russian Jewish family in Pavlovsk, near Saint Petersburg, and is raised in Moscow.

1904

On his seventh birthday, Vishniac receives his first camera and microscope.

Between 1904 and 1914 Vishniac studies biology and zoology, and experiments with camera lenses and magnification, documenting his results on film.

1917

The Bolsheviks seize power in the Russian Revolution.

Political History

1917

Between 1917-19, Vishniac’s family emigrates from Russia to Germany. He remains in Moscow to pursue graduate studies in biology and zoology at Shanyavsky Institute and becomes an avid amateur photographer.

1920

Vishniac and Luta Bagg, a Latvian Jew, are married at a border town on the way from Moscow to Riga. They immigrate to Weimar Berlin.

1920

1920sVishniac is an active member of several Berlin camera clubs. He builds a fully equipped photo-processing lab in his Berlin apartment in the Wilmersdorf district, a neighborhood heavily populated by affluent Russian Jews. He continues to pursue scientific research and microscopy while becoming an accomplished street photographer.

1922

Luta and Roman Vishniac's first child, Wolf, is born in a Berlin clinic.

1926

Luta and Roman's second child, Mara, is born in the same Berlin clinic as her brother Wolf.

1934-38: Vishniac takes photographs of German Jewish relief and community organizations operating under the Nazi regime in Berlin.

1935

The Nuremberg Laws are instituted in Germany and widespread antisemitic restrictions are imposed upon German Jews. Jewish businesses are boycotted in Germany, inspiring similar antisemitic actions throughout Poland.

Jewish History

1935

Ca. 1935-38, Vishniac is commissioned by the European headquarters of the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) in Paris, the world’s largest Jewish relief organization, to photograph impoverished Jewish communities throughout eastern Europe.

Vishniac is commissioned by the JDC to photograph thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Germany in the Polish border town of Zbaszyn.

Jewish History

1938

The JDC commissions Vishniac to photograph the Werkdorp Wieringen, an agrarian training camp in the Netherlands where young German Jewish refugees learn agricultural and vocational skills in preparation for immigration to Palestine and other countries.

Jewish History

1938

In November, coordinated attacks on Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues throughout Germany take place (Kristallnacht). Following this incident, approximately 30,000 Jews are arrested and sent to concentration camps.

Vishniac is in Berlin during Kristallnacht but is warned by a friend in the police force to avoid his apartment and to go into hiding.

1938

1938

Vishniac’s photographs of Jewish communities in eastern Europe are exhibited in the JDC offices in New York. This is the first time that his work is exhibited in the U.S.

Photo History

1938

Vishniac shoots moving film footage depicting Jewish life in Carpathian Ruthenia for the JDC. Some material is sent to the JDC in New York; other footage, identified by Vishniac as "outtakes," resurfaces in Paris after the war.

1939

Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop mutual nonaggression pact. Germany invades Poland on September 1; two days later, Britain and France declare war against Germany and World War II begins. The first Nazi ghetto is established in Poland.

Political History

1939

Vishniac works as a freelance photographer in western Europe, traving briefly to London and settling in France, while Luta remains in Berlin and struggles to secure immigration visas and affidavits for her family. Mara Vishniac is sent to safety in Sweden, where she is later joined by her brother Wolf.

1939

Vishniac travels to the South of France, where he makes a promotional film for the JDC documenting an ORT (Jewish Society for Trades and Agricultural Labor) vocational training school in Marseille. This is his last JDC assignment until he returns to Europe in 1947.

1940

The Vichy regime is established in France, July 1940.

Political History

1940

In Paris, Vishniac entrusts his negatives to friend Walter Bierer, who promises to transport them to the U.S.

1940

Vishniac is arrested and imprisoned for a month in the Camp du Ruchard internment camp in France.

1940

Vishniac reunites with Luta, Wolf, and Mara in Lisbon. They embark for New York on S.S. Siboney. The family arrives in New York on New Year's Eve.

1941

Germany invades the Soviet Union. Japan attacks the United States naval fleet at Pearl Harbor. Germany declares war on the U.S. Germany begins mass deportations of Jews to Poland.

Political History

1941

Vishniac’s parents begin living in hiding in the South of France. Vishniac's mother, Manya Wischniak, dies, July 30, 1941.

1941

Vishniac opens a portrait studio in his family’s Upper West Side apartment and works to establish himself as a science photographer. Over the next decade, he undertakes several commissions for Jewish relief, social service, and community organizations in the U.S.

1942

The Wannsee Conference is held to implement and coordinate the Final Solution, a plan to annihilate the Jewish people. Germany implements a policy of total destruction of European Jewry.

Jewish History

1942

Walter Bierer brings Vishniac’s negatives from France via Cuba to the U.S., where they are confiscated by Customs. After a lengthy struggle, the negatives are released to Vishniac, and he immediately begins to exhibit and publish them.

1942

A selection of Vishniac's eastern European photographs is exhibited in Life Everywhere, a show at New School for Social Research on view from October 19-November 1. Through this exhibition and others like it, Vishniac sought to raise awareness of the plight of European Jewry as the war raged.

1943

An exhibition of Vishniac’s photographs, Children of Want and Fear: Europe Before the War, is held at the Teachers College Library, Columbia University.

In January 1945 YIVO mounts a second large-scale Vishniac exhibition, Jewish Life in the Carpathians.

1945

Germany surrenders on May 7, 1945. The Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated by Soviet troops. Japan surrenders in September and World War II ends.

Political History

1946

Vishniac becomes an American citizen. Vishniac and Luta divorce.

1947

Vishniac returns to Europe on assignment for the JDC, the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), and The Forward to document Jewish Displaced Persons camps. While there, he photographs his demolished former hometown, Berlin.

1947

Vishniac’s first monograph, Polish Jews: A Pictorial Record, is published in New York.

1947

Vishniac reconnects with Edith Ernst, whom he marries in Berlin. They return to New York together, settling on the Upper West Side.

To Give Them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac, edited by Marion Wiesel, is published by Simon & Schuster in NY.

1999

Vishniac’s daughter, Mara Vishniac Kohn, coedits the publication Roman Vishniac: Children of a Vanished World featuring Vishniac’s 1930s photographs of children in eastern Europe. A related exhibition of Vishniac’s photographs of children tours the U.S.